Sew BitterSweet Designs Patterns

Classic Diamond Table Runner Pattern Updated

Classic Diamond Table Runner - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comHello All! I don’t know if you remember the free pattern I published two years for a fun Christmas Table Runner but I recently updated the pattern to include directions on how I make my Half Square Triangles.

This pattern has been downloaded thousands of times on Craftsy, and it is still available for free download. Please feel free to head over to my Craftsy Pattern Store and download it today, Christmas is heading towards us at the speed of light and this is a lightning fast pattern to make!

Happy Monday!

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Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Hypnotic Eye

Hello! If you are new to my blog, welcome! My name is Melissa and I am an aspiring quilt designer with a small shop over on Craftsy.  I am a mom to a beautiful and amazing almost 6 year old little girl and a wife to my very own personal hero (he’s a US Army Soldier).  If you are a regular here, thank you for sticking with me over the years.  I have recently taken a break on regular blogging but I am trying to make an effort, especially now that my daughter is in full-time kindergarten, to make more time to blogging.

My entry into the Blogger’s Quilt Festival is my Hypnotic Eye Quilt.  I’ve decided to enter it into the original design category. I designed this block in EQ7 as a challenge for the Quilt Design a Day group over on Facebook. It is an outstanding group and if you want to further your design skills, I highly recommend joining!  The inspiration photo for the day was a seaside landscape and we were given the colors below.

Hypnotic Eye Inspiration - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comAt about the same time that I designed the block, a black and white challenge was announced for the Pacific Northwest Modern Quilt Guilds. The challenge was to make black to white quilts with a pop of color.  Black to white meaning that you could use shades of gray as well.  I interpreted this challenge using all solids, and this is what I came up with.

Hypnotic Eye - http://blogs.sewbittersweetdesigns.comTo date, this is one of my favorite quilts that I have made.

Quilt Stats:

Designed, Pieced & Quilted by: Melissa Dunworth (me)
Batting: Warm & Natural
Fabrics: Kona Solids and American Made Brand Solids
Free Motion Zentangle Inspired Quilting

You can read more about this quilt in this post.  You can also read more about my quilting process on this quilt in this post.

I hope you will consider visiting the festival and voting for my quilt for Original Design!

And please keep coming back! I promise to be blogging more regularly!

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Jaftex 85th Anniversary Blog Hop – Rainbow Spinner!

Jaftex85thAnniversaryICo-sponosored by: Aurifil ThreadsSchmetz Needles, and Janome

I was so excited when I received an email asking if I wanted to participate in the anniversary blog hop for Jaftex Corporation! I received 3 bundles of Peppered Cottons, one for me, one for YOU, and one to make a beautiful quilted item with.  Be sure to enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post for your chance to win 20 Fat Quarters of Peppered Cottons by Studio E.

When I first received the fabrics, I wasn’t quite sure how to show off their simple beauty. It would be so easy to use them and make something pretty, but the challenge I set for myself was to use them and make them sing. I had a notion for a non-tradition color wheel and started out in EQ7.

EQ7 Rainbow Spinner - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.com

 I ended up making my own template for the wedges, as I didn’t own one with the correct degree.  Before piecing my quilt, I made a test quilt, I was afraid to cut into the fabrics and not have it be “perfect”. You can see that quilt in this blog post. Once I was certain that the design was a successful one, I started cutting and sewing. The top went together quickly. I ended up spray basting the large circle to the backing fabric and then fusing the center pinwheel to it. The center is appliqued down and the rest is quilted together.

Rainbow Spinner - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comTo truly appreciate the beauty of this quilt, it has to be viewed outside in sunlight, my parents deck in California happens to be my favorite place to photograph quilts, they always look amazing on the weather wood.  My favorite part, aside from the bright and beautiful fabrics, is the quilting. This is another one of my Zentangle Quilts. Check out the back!

Rainbow Spinner Back - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comAs you can tell…it is a bit…ahem…heavily quilted. This is meant to be used as a wall hanging, so I am quite all right with it being dense. For quilts that will be loved and hugged on, I do prefer a lighter touch on the quilting, but I definitely went overboard on this one.

I came up with the quilting design by doodling it on a print out from EQ7, this process always helps me plan my quilting and I highly recommend it to everyone!

Rainbow Spinner Zentangle - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.com

I have to say that having never worked with the Peppered Cottons before, I really didn’t know what to expect. When I received them, they were so soft, I just wanted to wrap myself up inside of them. That’s why this entire quilt, front, back and binding, are all made out of them. I wanted it to feel soft and luxurious to the touch, and believe me, it does.

So the big question becomes, who gets to keep this quilt? Anne or Mommy? She has already informed me that it is hers, but alas, her walls are filled with other quilts that she has “claimed”. Maybe this one will be MINE!

Quilt Stats:

Quilt Name: Rainbow Spinner
Designed, Pieced and Quilted by: Melissa Dunworth
Fabrics: Peppered Cottons for Studio E (Jaftex Corporation)
Size: 44″ x 46″

One last pretty picture:

Rainbow Spinner - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comPlease enter the Rafflecopter below to enter to win 20 Fat Quarters of these gorgeous Studio E Fabrics.

A little history behind the Jaftex Corporation:

Jaftex Corp. was founded in the 1930’s when Jacob A. Fortunoff started selling fabric on the streets of New York.  At that time, the mainstay of the business was women’s sleepwear and lingerie.  In the 80’s, Jacob’s grandson, Robert, dramatically changed the business of the company.  The business focus was transferred to the over the counter quilt industry when Robert purchased companies like A.E. Nathan, Henry Glass, Stylemaker, Chanteclaire, Fabric Editions/Studioe and more recently The Blank Quilting Corp.  Robert is now joined by his two sons, Scott and Greg.  Scott currently is the President of Studioe Fabrics, The Blank Quilting Corp. & A.E. Nathan Co., Inc.  Greg just joined the business in late 2014 and has successfully spearheaded the company’s foray in to precut fabrics among other contributions.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also! Make sure you visit this post and enter to win some even more incredible prizes, including a new sewing machine!

Tomorrow head over to Yvonne Fuchs – http://quiltingjetgirl.com and see what she has come up with! To see the full schedule of bloggers, make sure you check out the link above!

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A Fun Weekend

Hypnotic Eye - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comMy people went with me down to Portland for the Quilt! Knit! Stitch! show and I got to see my quilt “Hypnotic Eye” hanging. It was such a fun experience.

Here’s a picture of just the quilt.

Hypnotic Eye - http://blogs.sewbittersweetdesigns.com

The quilt was hanging in the Black to White modern quilting challenge:

Black to White Exhibit - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comHere is a picture of the full exhibit. It was such an honor to have a quilt hanging amongst such gorgeous quilts. The quilters in the Pacific Northwest sure do have some talent!

I hope have a wonderful Monday!

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Thurston County Fair 2015

Hello From Sunny California! I am on vacation AND working on my brand new computer in a completely different browser than I am used to, so if anything looks a little funky, please forgive me (I am still working out the kinks!).

This past weekend was the local county fair where I live in Washington. Even though I wasn’t home for the fair, I still entered 3 of my quilts and one of Anne’s dresses. My local chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild is trying to get the word out about our guild and what better way than a fun public event like the fair! I was pleasantly surprised (shocked, amazed, pick your synonym) when my awesome guild mate Kathy (read her blog here) messaged me during her volunteer shift  in our booth to tell me that I won ribbons. Such a wonderful surprise!  Another awesome guild mate, Heaether (go check out her blog here) was kind enough to take pictures for me, AND a third awesome guild mate, Lori, picked up my entries for me since I am out of town. I have to say I am so blessed to know such wonderful people!

 County Fair Blue Ribbon Dress

 Anne’s back to school dress from last year won a blue ribbon. I am so excited because clothes sewing is definitely not my thing. And by the way, my goal for August is to sew her back to school dress for this year, she naturally picked a pattern that has PIPING! Wish me luck!

Flowering Lone Star - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comMy Flowering Lone Start quilt won a blue ribbon! How exciting is that! If you love this pattern as much as I do you can find a link for it on My Patterns page!

Divergent - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comMy Divergent Quilt, also won a blue ribbon. This one recently hung at the National Quilt Association show in Arkansas. I received such lovely feedback from that show and now a blue ribbon from the county fair. This is also an original design, though no pattern is available at this time.

Swoon - https://test.sewbittersweetdesigns.comMy Swoon quilt not only won a blue ribbon but it also got a Judges Choice ribbon. Such an honor. It was quilted by my wonderful friend Vicki from Orchid Owl Quilts. The way they hung it (which I am assuming was done because of space constraints) doesn’t show off the full quilt, so if you would like to see more of it, click here. This pattern is by Thimble Blossoms and can be purchased from her website here.

It was so amazing to find out I had received so many blue ribbons, truly mind boggling. The best part though was being able to tell my mom in person and see the pride and happiness on her face. She is the one who taught me to quilt and continues to inspire and encourage me each and every day.

I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday! I plan to go to the park with Anne and work on a quilting a top for my mom.

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